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Naruto Shingetsu: The Maze (Team 16)
After the conclusion of the written exam and informing you that all remaining genin has passed, the proctor leaves the room, only for another, unfamiliar figure to step in. The second stage’s proctor. She has a calm aura about her, utterly composed, and commands with a soft voice for you all to follow her. Obeying without question, you and your fellow Genin march along behind her, only to be astounded when she leads you to the most massive maze you’ve ever seen. It looks to be beyond your wildest imagination, massive in scale and sinister in its decrepit appearance. The proctor catches you and your peers eyeing her in disbelief, and she smirks, letting out a huffy laugh. “Yes, you’re all going in there,” she announces. “Welcome to the Chūnin Exams Second Stage, the Maze!” A few nervous chuckles travel around, and some Genin exchange anxious glances with their friends and teammates. “Here’s how this is going to work. Each team will enter the maze through a specified gate, to be assigned by me. When everyone is in place, we will open the gate long enough for you to go in, and then it will shut. There will be no way out except to reach the dead center of the maze, which is your objective: reach the exit without getting yourself or your teammates killed. Once you reach the center, a proctor will remove you from the maze via a reverse summoning technique.” Nobody’s speaking, and silence falls among the crowd. Death? You knew the exams were going to be trying, but literal death? “Within the maze, there are all kinds of things designed to kill you. Randomly placed traps, wild animals, poisonous flora, the works. There is a barrier ninjutsu that will prevent anyone from trying to be a smartass and going over the maze, as well. Furthermore, be advised that the maze is designed to throw further potentially fatal tortures at you. The arena is a circular shape, divided into fourths. Each fourth represents a different sector. Different dangers will be introduced for each section, and that is all the detail I will give you. The rest is up to you and your teammates to navigate.” Murmurs break out, and it is painfully obvious that nobody is mentally prepared for this. Team 16 share a look at each other, resolute in your determination to pass this stage, and upon the proctor’s signal, they line up at your designated gate. All they have is their own skills and survival knowledge, and the help of their two closest allies. The sound of a cannon rings out, and your gate opens. Steeling themselves, Team 16 enter into the unknown. ---- The gates of the Labyrinth closed directly behind us. Ayame Hyūga took two steps before a rain of kunai appeared from the walls. "Hakkeshō Kaiten!" Ayame swiveled for several seconds, blowing away all of the offending kunai. She slowed to a stop before sighing. "This maze is really designed to kill us. Come on, Soukyū, Daiki. Let's get this thing over with." Daiki walked in to the room slowly. He glanced around the room for a moment as he focused chakra into his feet and ground. The chakra bounced around to give him a visual of the room and things just outside of it as well. With this, he turned back to his team members. "I can't feel any other sort of trap in this first room. I think we can transverse for now." This was the day, the day I would become a Chūnin class shinobi of the village. The difficulty of the second stage of the exams though seemed to be a bit of an overexaggeration, certain death. Pfft, I honestly doubt the higher-ups would allow for the future protectors of their village to be be killed, here of all people. However we should still be careful when navigating around this place. "Good job Ayame, Daiki. If we can just get through this stage without dying, we could still become chūnin." Soukyū said as he walked the room. "So, we should probably proceed to the next room." ---- Team 16 has been wandering the maze for a little while now. The exam hasn’t seemed quite so bad yet... Estimating, the three of them decide it’s been roughly three hours since the beginning of the exam. All is well. Without warning, however, a drop of rain lashes Daiki's cheek gently. Judging by the looks on his teammate’s faces, they also felt the same thing. Platforms that line the maze begin to contract back into the walls, leaving Team 16 exposed in the open field. Suspicious. This withdrawal of potential shelter begins to make sense when Ayame's cheek suddenly feels like it has been set on fire, and she screams out: “It’s acid! The rain is acid!” ---- As the acidic water came down, Daiki flinched in pain. He could feel the chemicals burning his flesh. He moved closer towards his teammates and began to focus earth chakra into the ground. As he did, a rectangular shelf of earth moved up with two round pillars on either side to hold it up. "Get under it!" Daiki said as he jumped beneath it, escaping the burning shower. "So long as we don't attempt to scale the walls or go under like an idiot, using the earth as a cover should be perfectly fine." To assist Daiki, Ayame had attempted to blow away the rain touching him at the cost of injuring herself. Once the roof was up, she ran under it. She hurriedly beckoned to Soukyū, "Come on!" While waiting for him to come, Ayame's hands blazed blue and she placed it over Daiki's wounds. "Ugh..." Soukyū said in pain, as he felt the acidic rain touch his skin, burning it quite badly. "I guess they're really serious about this, huh?" Soukyū said as he proceeded to slide under the earthen shelter, as Ayame insisted. Maybe this exam isn't going to be so easy after all. When they came in here he was so sure they were all going to go through this stage unharmed, but now he's not so sure. Especially since his expertise seem to be completely useless here, but still, he's more than ready to put his life on the line for his teammates. "Are you alright, Ayame, Daiki?" Soukyū asked in a concerned tone. Daiki's flesh wounds have all but disappeared and so she proceeded to heal Soukyū's wounds. "How long do you think this rain will go on for, Daiki?" ---- Tired. After the disaster with the acid rain, Team 16 continues to trek through the maze, which has continued to throw surprises at them. That’s the phrase that runs repeatedly through each of their minds. None of them are keeping time anymore, but if they were, they'd guess that they had spent roughly six hours in the maze thus far. Even though none of them would dare say it aloud, they're all grateful to have lasted this long. They didn’t think it would really be as hard as the proctor had told them, but their wounds and waning stamina tell them otherwise. Relief floods Team 16 as they come across a sizable pond, glistening and clear and oh-so-beautiful. Overjoyed, they rush into it to cleanse their wounds and maybe get rid of the sweat that clings to their skin. In the blink of an eye, Team 16 finds themselves going under, spinning rapidly. Too late did they realize that they have been sucked into a deadly whirlpool. ---- Daiki flailed in the water, shocked by the sudden rotation of water. He tried to make his way back up to the surface of the water. Struggling, his head breached the surface of the water. Gasping for air and trying desperately not to get sucked back down, he did something strange. He detached the hand from his right arm, his puppet arm. Doing this, he kept threads of chakra attached to it and focused on it completely as he gasped for air before he stopped fighting the water and started going back down. His puppet hand flew through the air before landing just on the shore of the pond. With the threads of chakra attached, the hand crawled forth to find something sturdy to grasp on to. Remembering a boulder on the beach, the hand wrapped around it and buried its fingers into the ground to make a final anchor. Using his hand as a grappling hook, Daiki began to shorten the threads and use it as a means to pull himself out of the water. Again, his head broke water as he finally got to the shore, gasping for air and coughing out water as he did so. He turned his gaze to the water as his false hand finally reattached itself, trying to spot his teammates in the process. Unlike the rest of her teammates, Ayame was not surprised by the whirlpool. She had fully expected it to be a trap. When she felt the rotation of the water, she immediately tried to perform the Hakke Kūsho to eject herself from the pool but she nearly lost concentration due to the suddenness of the whirlpool. She knew it was coming but it still threw her off guard. In one clean movement, she blasted herself out of the water with her palm and landed on the beach. Groaning and trying to sit up, she spotted Daiki. "Daiki! You're okay! Oh, thank God! Where's Soukyū?" When Daiki shook his head, Ayame's face contorted and she slowly turned her head back to the water. She hoped Soukyū's mastery over his art would allow him to escape from the liquid maw. As he and his teammates were sucked into the deadly whirlpool, Soukyū was thrown all over the place by the suddenness of the whole thing. Desperately trying to reach the surface Soukyū finally managed to do it. Trying to fight the current but to no avail. His hands were all over the place, searching for anything solid they could use to pull him up back to the surface, but they found nothing. With nothing to pull him up, Soukyū was now at the mercy of the whirlpool. Now was this truly the end of me? My life ended by a nobody? Because of some stupid exam? All these were suddenly filling Soukyū's mind, as his body now fighting for every last bit of oxygen. As he went down Soukyū quickly pulled out his scroll, opening its roller compartment before grabbing his ink supply. He had hoped things wouldn't come down to this but looking at how things were going Soukyū really didn't have much of a choice. He would have to use up his ink supply, although he did have a secondary batch hidden away in one of his scroll's various compartments, it still seemed like a waste. Once the small container was in his hand, Soukyū began focusing some chakra into his hand before throwing container at the wall, and as it made contact the container shattered, splattering ink all of over the wall. Having used up what was remaining of his chakra things began going dark for Soukyū, as his body finally gave and he was sucked in by the whirlpool. As his body fell to its watery grave, Soukyū's mind went blank, with his vision now darkening it was apparent that this was the end but he wasn't ready to die just yet. As the whirlpool carried off Soukyū to his demise, the boy began weaving hand seals, and as he did something amazing happened. The ink that had been splattered on the wall transformed into a den of snakes, with the ink source being that these particular ones were anchored to the wall. This was a trait that would help them save Soukyū's life, as they quickly went into the water, wrapped around Soukyū, pulled him out, then throwing him on the beach. "Heh, look at that...I survived" Soukyū said as he laughed weakly. Looking around Soukyū could confirm that both his teammates had survived the ordeal. "Thank the Kami..." he said in relief, as he looked up into the sky. "Ayame are you okay? How about you Daiki, do you think you could still go on?" "Oh, thank God," Ayame sighed. "You made it." When asked whether she was fine, she replied, "Yeah, I'm good. Just a bit shook is all." She helped Soukyū to his feet and moved to help Daiki up. However, he was already up and raring to go. "If I remember correctly, the proctor said there were four sectors," he pointed out. "So far, we have went through two big traps. Is it safe to assume we're halfway through the Labyrinth?" Ayame thought for a moment. "Good point, Daiki. Hmm... What do you think, Sou-kun?" "That is possible." Soukyū said as he stared into the sky. Just how much longer are we going to last, before one of us gives in. His focus now returning to his teammates, "However we shouldn't get too comfortable, because the one thing we know about these exams is that they are meant to test us and our ability to work together." Letting out a big puff, "What I'm trying to say is that the exam protectors may have included an additional trial within the maze, but ofcourse thats just a theory." He said with a large grin on his face, looking in Ayame's direction. ---- None of the members of Team 16 could remember the last time they were this sore, exhausted, covered in injuries, and fading quickly. They've all learned by this point not to trust anything in the maze, but something is telling them that they're not too much further from the center. At least halfway, they all agree. Sheer desire to get out has led to discussion amongst them regarding how long they've been in there, and approximately nine hours is the best estimate they have, given how deeply night has set in, and considering the exam started at what felt like midday. It starts gently at first, but the ground beneath their feet begins to rumble. The walls are suddenly shaking, and the ground in front of them begins to split open. Rubble begins to fall, threatening to crush at least one of them. The earthquake’s fury reaches its full peak, their location being the epicenter. ---- The ground shook ever so slightly gently, at first Soukyū didn't really think much of it. This was until the ground began shaking a lot more violently, making a sort of rumbling sound, even the walls began to break apart from the intensity of this quake. One his teammates were in imminent danger, no, all them were in danger. This is bad, even the ground is splitting. This had a devastating effect on the area, splitting apart his team as the ground had become displaced. He had to act quickly or else they'd all be toast, reaching into his haori as Soukyū struggled but he managed to pull out his scroll. Using his ink brush, Soukyū quickly drew and animated a large colorful bird before he then jumped on it and proceeded to save his fellow comrades, as the bird took flight, heading in the direction of his teammates. Once he had arrived Soukyū managed to locate his lost teammates, both of which were dealing with their perils. "Hey, guys! I'm right here!" Soukyū shouted at the top of his voice, as he waved his both hands in the air, hoping they would detect him. Unfortunately, both failed to notice him in the air, they must've been too busy trying to stay alive, obviously. With this in mind, Soukyū signaled his bird to fly down towards Daiki's location as he was the closest out of the two. He had to get him out of there, but he would have to do this fast if he wanted to save both Daiki and Ayame. As Soukyū neared Daiki he yelled out, "C'mon Daiki, jump on!" as his ink bird circled around Daiki. Daiki moved quickly, evading debris coming from the walls and from above. A stone fell towards him, but he quickly activated a blade of chakra that was inside of his puppet arm. Using the saw, he cut the stone in half, and its pieces fell on either side of him. While the shaking of the earth and falling debris made it difficult, Daiki heard the faint voice of his teammate and saw the ink bird flying towards him. Daiki began to run towards it and leaped. Using falling stones to get more height, Daiki made his way to the bird finally. "Don't fly too high, we don't want to give even the appearance of trying to go over the walls. Can you see Ayame?" As soon as Daiki was on Soukyū signaled the ink bird to fly them away from that particular area. "Damn, that was a close one." Soukyū said, relieved that his teammate had survived the quake. It did catch us by surprise after all, but then I guess we all sort of saw this coming. As Soukyū was lost in thought, he heard Daiki's voice snapping him back to reality. "Yeah, we don't want to be disqualified from this after all," he said as he signaled the bird to fly lower, while still also avoiding the falling debris. Soukyū took a good look around, trying to spot Ayame "I swear I saw her somewhere around here..." As he looked around Soukyū noticed something moving in all the chaos, it seemed as if it was trying to evade something. "There she is!" Soukyū exclaimed, pointing his finger in her direction, his ink bird neared her and began circling around. "Yo! Ayame! Over here!" Soukyū said loudly, waving both his hands in the air. "Thank God," Ayame sighed. She had been struggling for the past ten minutes to avoid falling debris. She has been blowing away most of the debris using the Hakke Kūsho. She hopped from rock to rock to gain altitude until she landed on Soukyū's bird. "Aw, man, I love you so much right now," she teased, kissing him on the cheek. "Okay, so how long is this quake going to go on for?" "Whew! She made it." Soukyū said, as he watched her get on the ink bird. "Looks like we're all —" Soukyū paused, as he was cut of by the suddenness of Ayame's kiss. Though it a simple kiss on the cheek it was still enough make his face turn completely red. This wasn't really a surprise though Ayame has done this a few times in the past, but still. "I...I...I'm not really..." Soukyū stuttered, still flustered. Man, Ayame's really going to a get a kick out of this. He quickly thought of save, he quickly turned away from Ayame and faced his other teammate. "Sooo Daiki! How much longer do you think this quake will go on for?" Soukyū said as he quickly regained his composure, completely ignoring Ayame's question. Daiki stared at the ground. "I'm not entirely sure, but this seems to be a pretty strong earthquake. I'd say we should stay on the bird and fly to the next room if possible." Daiki checked on his hand and arm, to be sure nothing was damage too much.